Contemporary China

An article in the Los Angeles Times, August 9, 2006, describes the steps China is taking to clean up the skies before the 2008 Olympics.

Those of us who went on a study tour of China this summer noticed that the air quality throughout most of the region we toured is bad. Most of the time the sky is a hazy gray. China wants/needs to clean the air the athletes will breathe and to have a healthful environment for the attendees.

However, improving the situation seems a Herculean task. The country uses coal as it's primary source of fuel, there are more and more cars on the roads (growing 10% per year), and the Olympics themselves have contributed to a massive building boom. (Beijing has more than 9,000 construction sites right now.) This is certainly not going to slow down prior to 2008.

A couple of measures the government has proposed: get the old cars and buses off the roads prior to the Olympics, and possibly ban private vehicular traffic during the games, effectively giving most residents a holiday. Of course, these are temporary measures, designed to improve conditions for the athletes, tourists, and media who will be analyzing Beijing during the Olympics.

The residents of China? They will continue to burn coal, buy cars and breathe bad air...until the government can come up with a mandated solution. And, while this government is effective at making and implementing decisions quickly, it should be interesting to see if this is a problem they can solve.

Every journey begins with but a single step. Los Angeles had similar problems and it has taken a very long time time to begin addressing them. The city of angels has partially succeeded. maybe Beijing will avoid some of the pitfalls L.A. succumbed to.

I read the article in Daily News on August 10th and I too am shocked and still can't get over it. It really got me sick over the Chinese officials' mentality. The article said that over 54,000 dogs were killed during the campaign. Most of those dogs were taken to a public square and hanged from a tree. Can anyone imagine? There was no reason to kill those dogs since they had been vaccinated and couldn't have been spread rabies. They were pets for people!!! After reading the article, I have changed my view of China and Chinese government forever. China has been always a strange country to me. The government allows their citizens to have much more freedom for their social mobilization and it has been percieved to become a somewhat democratic society. Then they do this!!! Not that I have ever did understand the Chinese government, but I can never trust them after learning about their inhumane and their brutal behavior in this contemporary world. In my opinion, those officials that ordered them killed diserve less respect than any dogs. It is so bad that it makes the impression of whole country a brutal, crazy, undeveloped and uncivilized barbarians. I'm glad I was not there; I might have shot them to death. I truly hope something will be done about it.

This appeared on the Apple Computer web site on August 17, 2006. Seems to be proactive about possible exploitation of labor issues. What do you think?

"Report on iPod Manufacturing
August 17, 2006

Like many of you, we were concerned by reports in the press a few weeks ago alleging poor working and living conditions at a manufacturing facility in China where iPods are assembled. Our Supplier Code of Conduct mandates that suppliers of Apple products follow specific rules designed to safeguard human rights, worker health and safety, and the environment. We take any deviation from these rules very seriously.

In response to the allegations, we immediately dispatched an audit team comprised of members from our human resources, legal and operations groups to carry out a thorough investigation of the conditions at the manufacturing site. The audit covered the areas of labor standards, working and living environment, compensation, overtime and worker treatment. The team interviewed over 100 randomly selected employees representing a cross-section of line workers (83%), supervisors (9%), executives (5%), and other support personnel (3%) including security guards and custodians. They visited and inspected factory floors, dormitories, dining halls, and recreation areas. The team also reviewed thousands of documents including personnel files, payroll data, time cards, and security logs. In total, the audit spanned over 1200 person-hours and covered over one million square feet of facilities.

To ensure the accuracy of the investigation, the team cross-referenced multiple sources of information from employees, management and personnel records. For example, working hours and overtime reported in the interviews were corroborated with line-shift reports, badge reader logs, and payroll records of those specific individuals to confirm that they were paid appropriately.

We found the supplier to be in compliance in the majority of the areas audited. However, we did find violations to our Code of Conduct, as well as other areas for improvement that we are working with the supplier to address. What follows is a summary of what we’ve learned, what’s already being done in response, and our commitment to future diligence and action.

Labor Standards
The team reviewed personnel files and hiring practices and found no evidence whatsoever of the use of child labor or any form of forced labor. This review included examining security records targeted at discovering false identification papers — an important check for companies serious about preventing illegal employment of any kind.

Working and Living Environment
The manufacturing facility supports over 200,000 employees (Apple uses less than 15% of that capacity) and has the services you’d expect in a medium city. The campus includes factories, employee housing, banks, a post office, a hospital, supermarkets, and a variety of recreational facilities including soccer fields, a swimming pool, TV lounges and Internet cafes. Ten cafeterias are also located throughout the campus offering a variety of menu choices such as fresh vegetables, beef, seafood, rice, poultry, and stir-fry noodles. In addition, employees have access to 13 different restaurants on campus. Employees were pleased with the variety and quality of food offerings.

The supplier owns and leases dormitories that are offered at no charge to employees, provided they help in cleaning common areas to maintain the facility. Workers are not required to live in these dormitories, although the majority do. Our team randomly selected and inspected a wide range of dormitories (both supplier-owned on-campus and off-site leased facilities) that collectively house over 32,000 people. Buildings are separated by gender, with female dorms containing a private bathroom/shower for each room and male dorm rooms typically sharing bathroom/shower facilities. The dorms have TV rooms, potable water, private lockers, free laundry service, and public telephones. Many also have ping-pong and snooker tables, and sitting/reading areas. All of the on-campus dorms have air conditioning. Visitors are permitted in the dorms, although a sign-in process is used for security purposes.

Our audit of on-site dormitories found no violations of our Code of Conduct. We were not satisfied, however, with the living conditions of three of the off-site leased dorms that we visited. These buildings were converted by the supplier during a period of rapid growth and have served as interim housing. Two of the dormitories, originally built as factories, now contain a large number of beds and lockers in an open space, and from our perspective, felt too impersonal. The third contained triple-bunks, which in our opinion didn’t provide reasonable personal space.

To address this interim housing situation, the supplier acquired additional land and is currently building new dormitories. These plans were in place prior to our audit, and will increase the total living space by 46% during the next four months.

Compensation
Our investigation confirmed that all workers earn at least the local minimum wage, and our sample audit of payroll records showed that more than half were earning above minimum wage. Employees also have the opportunity to earn bonuses. In addition, the supplier provides a comprehensive medical plan including free annual checkups.

We did find, however, that the pay structure was unnecessarily complex. An employee’s wage was comprised of several elements (base pay, skill bonus, attendance bonus, housing allowance, meal allowance, overtime), making it difficult to understand and communicate to employees. This structure effectively failed to meet our Code of Conduct requirement that how workers are paid must be clearly conveyed. The supplier has since implemented a simplified pay structure that meets the Code of Conduct.

We also discovered that the process for reporting overtime was manual and monthly, and while not a violation of the Code of Conduct, it was subject to human error and relied too much on memory for dispute resolution. To address this issue, the supplier will link the payroll system and electronic badge system, which will automate the recording of hours worked and pay calculations. This update will be completed by October 1.

Overtime
We found no instances of forced overtime and employees confirmed in interviews that they could decline overtime requests without penalty. We did, however, find that employees worked longer hours than permitted by our Code of Conduct, which limits normal workweeks to 60 hours and requires at least one day off each week. We reviewed seven months of records from multiple shifts of different productions lines and found that the weekly limit was exceeded 35% of the time and employees worked more than six consecutive days 25% of the time. Although our Code of Conduct allows overtime limit exceptions in unusual circumstances, we believe in the importance of a healthy work-life balance and found these percentages to be excessive.

The supplier has enacted a policy change to enforce the weekly overtime limits set by our Code of Conduct. The policy change has been communicated to supervisors and employees and a management system has been implemented to track compliance with the Code of Conduct. Supervisors must receive approval from upper level management for any deviation.

Worker Treatment
Employees work in factories that are generally bright, clean and modern with air-conditioned assembly line areas, and are provided with protective gear. There’s an employee grievance process in place, including a telephone hotline, a CEO mailbox for complaints and employee suggestion boxes.

Our interviews with employees revealed areas of both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. A majority of employees interviewed were pleased with the work environment and specifically noted the opportunity for advancement, widespread year-end bonuses, and the reputation of the supplier in the industry. Additionally, employees consistently mentioned that they felt safe and secure in both the workplace and the dormitories.

Employees expressed dissatisfaction with some aspects of the workplace. The single largest complaint (approximately 20% of interviewed workers) was the lack of overtime during non-peak periods. The second largest complaint (less than 10%) was the transportation schedule for employees living in off-campus dorms, which they felt was inadequate outside of working hours. Results of the interviews have been shared with management, and will be addressed where appropriate. For example, the transportation schedule is being reviewed for adjustment.

During our interviews with employees, we explicitly asked every line worker whether they had ever been subjected to or witnessed objectionable disciplinary punishment. Two employees reported that they had been disciplined by being made to stand at attention. While we did not find this practice to be widespread, Apple has a zero tolerance policy for any instance, isolated or not, of any treatment of workers that could be interpreted as harsh. The supplier has launched an aggressive manager and employee training program to ensure such behavior does not occur in the future.

The Future
Recognizing that some aspects of workplace auditing (such as health and safety) lie beyond our current expertise, we’ve engaged the services of Verité, an internationally recognized leader in workplace standards dedicated to ensuring that people around the world work under safe, fair and legal conditions. We are committed to ensuring compliance with our Code of Conduct and will complete audits of all final assembly suppliers of Mac and iPod products in 2006.

We recognize that monitoring compliance is an ongoing process requiring continual progress reviews. When violations are discovered in any supplier, we will require corrective action plans, with a focus on prevention and systemic solutions. We will also ensure that action plans are implemented and in cases where a supplier’s efforts in this area do not meet our expectations, their contracts will be terminated.

We are encouraged with the actions to date in response to our audit. However, we realize that auditing compliance is only one step in the journey toward driving change. We have also joined the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct (EICC) Implementation Group, which has established industry-wide standards and offers valuable resources for evaluating suppliers. The EICC was a key benchmark when our own Code of Conduct was created and as an industry leader, Apple will make important contributions to this group.

Apple is committed to the highest standard of social responsibility in everything we do and will always take necessary action accordingly. We are dedicated to ensuring that working conditions are safe and employees are treated with respect and dignity wherever Apple products are made.

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Copyright © 2006 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved."[Edit by="losa on Aug 17, 6:21:23 PM"][/Edit]

The latest National Geographic (September 2006) has an interesting article about Manchuria. It is named "The Manchurian Mandate". It is about the decay and possible revival of the Maoist industrial heartland of China. Specifically, it is about northeast China. It is an interesting and easy read.[Edit by="losa on Aug 18, 3:59:35 PM"][/Edit]
[Edit by="losa on Aug 18, 4:00:15 PM"][/Edit]

Your post made me envision trees with dogs hanging from them like Christmas tinsel. Not a pretty site.

Ignoring the brutality of this move, I am continually impressed with the efficiency of China's government. There are no organizations like SPCA or Save the Dogs; there are no actresses chaining themselves to dog kennels; there are no permits to be pulled or residential groups to meet with. The government sees a problem, makes a decision, and the people have to go along with it.

On the other side of the world, in Los Angeles, the police are complaining that they can't move the homeless off the downtown streets because the ACLU has sued the city for infringing on the rights of the homeless. If this were China, there would be no homeless on the streets. (We saw no homeless evident in China on the tour in June/July.)

I'm not saying that a totalitarian government is better, but it certainly can make decisions more rapidly. They aren't mired in red-tape and held back by frivolous and non-frivolous lawsuits.

On the part of the residents of China, anything is better than the days of the Cultural Revolution and Land Reform, so they all see the improvement and progress. We heard several times, "It's not perfect, but it's getting better." The Chinese people can't fight government, so they turn their attentions elsewhere and accept the problems as a necessary step in the road to progress.

I have not been to China for many years. Are people still smoking cigarettes incessantly? If the smog does not kill them, the smoking habit might. I am so glad to live in CA where smoking laws are enforced and am glad that car smog/air pollution has declined considerably over the last several years.
When I visited China, there were no private vehicles! It will be such a culture shock for me to see the modernization and capitalism compared to my visit three decades ago.
Cathy Chaparral High, Temecula

Thanks for the tip.........I wonder if my subscription expired, as I have not received it. Not only do I appreciate your posting, I realize I better contact NG!! I have hundreds of old copies; I think I will ask my students to use them to create a time line of articles by country.
I never thought of disassembling the magazines, but can see a real benefit to having the articles more categorized and getting the kids more involved in reading the articles, some of which are very old. In the case of China, anything a few years old is already passe'!
Cathy Chaparral High Temecula

As the adoptive parent of a three year old girl in China, I am not surprised with the resignation that you see there over the things that the Chinese government does. Things like that are so commonplace that the people just seem to accept it. Unfortunately they are also slow in other areas to come to terms with some of the problems caused by short-sighted policies such as the One-child policy that is estimating that there will be a differential of 40 million men and women of marriageable age by 2020. The Chinese government is just now starting to come to terms with it. We are in the process of trying to adopt our second child from China and things are progressing much more slowly than in 2003-2004. Some people have surmised (although the Chinese government is tight-lipped about it) that China is encouraging in-country adfoptions and that they are also monitoring pregnancies more closely beginning in 2006. Even so, American adoptions of Chinese children rose by nearly a thousand adoptions in 2005 over 2004 and many expect that number to rise this year. More Americans are simply looking to China to adopt than ever before and so there is probably also a supply and demand issue.

They are smoking as incessantly as ever and there are plenty of private vehicles. China sold twice as many new cars in 2005 as in 2004 and they expect that number to double this year. The high rises will also surprise you. We went to Guangzhou and were told by one of the people we traveled with that she had been there twenty years before and had seen no buildings taller than three stories. It is a cosmopolitan city today, with wall to wall skyscrapers and 30 story hotels. I use photographs that I have taken and collected to show the rise of China in the classroom, along with the air and water pollution.

On National Public Radio today they were talking about a new craze in Bejing. It seems that pole dancing studios have begun to open around. They're not the sleazy or even mildly erotic dancing that we think of when we think of it, but a health fad to lose weight and stay in shape. Older people, the young, and white-collar wives seem to be enjoying the moves.

As I read the post about the mass and brutal execution of dogs in China, I found myself becoming increasingly horrified to the point of nausea. A government that is capable of this level of brutiality against defenseless animals is capable of anything. I don't know how any person living in China can feel safe. In fact, the idea that Chinese citizens accept such a brutal edict with no public outcry is so foreign to me as a person born and raised in the US that I find it nearly impossible to understand. The cultural norms that must exist in China in order for such brutal acts and dispassionate acceptance to take place are so diametrically opposed to what we experience here in the US as to be incomprehensible. Is there any protection at all in China for the more more vulnerable elements in society such as animals, the elderly, the disabled and the handicapped? The mark of any great nation is evidenced by its care and concern for the defenseless and vulnerable. In the US we may not always get it raight but somebody is always trying to get it right.

Also, I wonder about the moral outrage against this practice. Do the Chinese condone this practice, or are they afraid to speak out against their government. Surley there must be a better solution, but what advocacy is there for animals in general in China? Perhaps the lack of advocacy for animals is the reason why this practice has gone unchecked. From a cultural standpoint, do the Chinese view dogs as less important so the indiscriminate killing of dogs is acceptable? We in the west seek to protect many things and raise the importance of their existance like trees, animals, children, and the environment. Is that happening in China, or with a country of billions, can they not afford the luxury of protecting every cause or interest, human or non, and must pick and choose those with the most need or stop what causes the most problem?

I would need to know more information to make an educated critique.[Edit by="tstevenson on Feb 26, 12:21:03 AM"][/Edit]

China has been in the news recently. The U.S. now considers China a market economy...this is big change from the way it viewed China for the past few decades.

Thanks for the heads-up on the National geographic feature, though I guess I'm a bit late...

My wife's family lives in Jinzhou, one of the Rust Belt cities in northeastern China, in Liaoning province. The town itself was the scene of a crucial battle in the civil war, as it is the rail hub of northern China. Today it's very much running down, with something like 60% unemployment - and no social security. Even in winter, which is brutal, the streets are full of people trying to get by on what they can make from selling food cooked over a small open fire, or by pedalling bicycle taxis... the last time I was there, four years ago, there'd been a bank robbery, not a common occurence but maybe an indication of how desperate poeple were becoming...

Making the transition from a communist state-finaced economy to a corruption-free free market economy has left many Chinese stranded high and dry, and is surely one of the major problems that China has to deal with if it can fulfill its potential as an economic super-power.

Ray[Edit by="rrobinson on Apr 3, 7:44:45 AM"][/Edit]

Another timely article surfaced in today's Guardian International (now that we have spring break, I actually have time to go read this good stuff!).

A recent paper by a Professor Paul Sharpe puts forward the rather interesting thesis that China will surge ahead economically chiefly because of its huge population, rather than any other factor. Not sure I agree... what do you think?

Ray



Population, not free trade, behind China and India booms

An academic paper has challenged widely-held views about the emergence of China and India on to the world stage, one of the most important economic phenomena of recent years.

The reasons for the growth of these countries are usually thought to be globalisation, free trade and high wages in developed countries. But a paper by Professor Paul Sharp of the University of Copenhagen suggests the answer is much more prosaic. Drawing on a study of 19th century America for the Economic History Society's annual conference at the weekend, Prof Sharp said America's emergence in the 1800s was due to phenomenal population growth, not the free trade that was sweeping the globe at that time.

The increase in wheat trade between Britain and the United States in the nineteenth century had little to do with falling barriers to trade, but was linked to a rise in production in the US. This was almost certainly the result of large-scale population growth as immigrants flocked to America and became farmers. Prof Sharp's statistical analysis shows that a 1% increase in US production led to a 3% increase in UK imports. US production increased well over 1,000% in the nineteenth century.

The populations of China and India have been outpacing those of western economies for years, so it should be little surprise that most electrical appliances are manufactured in China or that an increasing amount of software outsourcing goes to India.[Edit by="rrobinson on Apr 3, 7:43:43 AM"][/Edit]

China puts a new coal-burning power station on line every week! The pollution this causes will only be exacerbated by the exponantial growth in car use and ownership (interestingly, last night's BBC World News - available on fine PBS stations everywhere - had a feature on just this topic, with the reporter on the spot in Beijing describing how, taking a good deep breath, you can taste the coal at the back of the throat).

Looks like all the post-Kyoto protocols to lessen air (and, more devastatingly, ocean) carbon will be overwhelmed as China's economy takes on a full head of exhaust...

The conclusion of last night's Beijing report was that China and Chinese cities were increasingly suffering under a shroud of air pollution - unspoken was the obvious extension -that these pollutants won't stay neatly within China's political boundaries, but disperse across the globe, and over the Pacific (I read one report that one-third of California's pollution is from China - sounds rather a lot to me, but I think it's probably true that particulates do arrive here from the growing Asian economies).

Ray

I was listening to Public Radio about the new relations Japan and China have been sharing. There is indeed a big gulf dividing them because of their histories, but it will be interesting to see if they become more allies or competitors.

Something I've been reading a lot about lately is the controversial use of coal in China, especially the large amounts of deaths of coal miners as well as the enormous amount of pollution that the use of coal emits into the atmosphere.
This has obviously been a problem for a number of years, but it has been in the American media recently. I first came across it in a few different magazine articles during the past two months. This sparked an interest in this subject and I recently found another article from the New York Timeshttp://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/business/worldbusiness/11chinacoal.html?ex=1307678400en=e9ac1f6255a24fd8ei=5088partner=rssnytemc=rss&pagewanted=all
According to this article, over 400,000 premature deaths are caused annually due to the sulfur dioxide emissions that are a by product of using coal as an energy source. There are thousands of illegal coal mines in China where there are horrible safety and environmental hazards. This article contains many shocking and eye opening statements, including that China creates so much sulfur dioxide pollution that it is being carried downwind to South Korea, Japan, and even further.
I was surprised to learn that China creates one sixth of the world's sulfur dioxide pollution and that they are the world's leader in mercury emissions.

Another current article on Chinese coal mines appeared in Time magazine On March 2, 2007 titled "Where The Coal Is Stained With Blood".
This article focuses more on the horrible conditions that coal miners endure rather than on the environmental damage caused by the coal mines. According to this article, since China relies on coal for over 70% of its energy needs, Beijing has plans to officially open about 40 coal powered electricity generating plants each year for the next few years. This has created a capitalist greed among many Chinese entrepeneurs who open illegal coal mines and become wealthy rather quickly, with little regard for the miners' well being. (Similar to many unregulated or poorly regulated businesses in many places.)
The article mentions a documentary film titled Yuan Shan (Distant Mountain) by filmmaker Hu Jie that covers some of the horrible conditions that coal miners endured over ten years ago. I have been searching for this film to no avail. If anyone finds a copy of it, please let me know because I would really like to view this and possibly use excerpts of it in my classroom.

On April 20, former US ambassador to China J. Stapleton Roy addressed a USC US-China Institute audience on "The Future of US - China Relations." Roy retired in 2001 from the US Foreign Service after a 45 year career holding the service's highest rank: Career Ambassador. He subsequently went to work as Managing Director of Kissinger Associates, a strategic consulting firm.

You can see his talk at:

http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=61

What do you think of his assessment of what Americans know about China and where China is heading?

The website includes copies of papers and presentations.

Thank you for an interesting and thought-provoking post. Is it really possible that one-third of our smog and/or air pollution in California is from particles blown in from China?! You mentioned that China completes a new coal-burning power station every week - I thought coal was considered to be clean-burning and relatively more environmentally friendly than other power alternatives. Given your comment that people in Beijing can taste the coal at the back of their mouths, it doesn't seem as though the coal is burning very cleanly!

In today's Los Angeles Times (June 23, 2007), there's an interesting article about China's diplomacy and growing influence around the world. "China's Charm Offensive" on page A23 describes how China is building relationships with nations that want an alternative to the "meddling power of the West." The article lists several nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that are allowing China to invest in their infrastructure, businesses, and development. Most developing nations seem to want to follow China's need for economic progress while not interfering in their internal affairs (unlike what the U.S. does). However, the article points out that in addition to the economic benefits, some leaders of developing nations also want to adopt the totalitarian government of China. A new study was also cited that indicates citizens being less likely to support democrtatic government seems to play into the bigger scheme of why China is more appealing.

In the Times Literary Supplement (London) for 1 June 2007, "Checked by Hand," a review of the Tate Liverpool exhibition "The Real Thing: Contemporary art from China," freelance art critic Tanya Harrod notes that it is a great time to be a visual artist in China because contemporary Chinese art is selling for record prices. However, there is a catch to it. As Harrod notes, the biggest buyers of contemporary Chinese art, the US and Great Britain, want their Chinese art to look, for lack of a better word, Chinese. That does not necessarily mean Ming Dynasty landscape paintings. But it does mean art that "employs reassuringly academic mimetic skills to make political points," such as artist Wang Guanyi grafting Western luxury-brand logos onto famous revolutionary posters or artist Shi Xinning inserting Mao's iconic image into famous photographs with arch Andy-Warhol-type results: Mao sunbathing with Peggy Guggenheim, Mao and the Queen Mother, Mao at the Yalta Conference, etc. This kind of hip political art is appreciated by the former Western imperial masters of China as cool and contemporary and yet quintessentially Chinese.

But what about contemporary Chinese artists who want to create art that does not look recognizably Chinese, at least not to Western eyes? Harrod examines some contemporary Chinese artists featured in the Liverpool exhibition who are doing just that: creating art that responds to China's tumultuous social dynamics without catering to Western ideas of what contemporary Chinese art should look like. She discusses artists like Wang Gongxin, whose video "Our Sky is Falling In," about the corrosive effects of change in contemporary China, features Chinese actors, but they could be Chinese-British or Chinese-American. Wang has given his video an international rather than a distinctively Chinese style. Harrod also comments on Cao Fei's video "Whose Utopia?" on the politics of work, filmed in the Osram lighting factory, once located in Hammersmith in England, now out-sourced, along with so much else, to China.

Harrod believes that contemporary Chinese artists like Wang Gongxin and Cao Fei have the right to be international in style rather than distinctively Chinese, although she admits a personal fondness for the use of more traditional material, such as Buddhism and scroll paintings, and notes that these older influences were the central focus of an exhibition last year at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, "Between Past and Future: New photography and video from China," where even Cao Fei himself mixed more traditional Chinese imagery with the modern worlds of anime and video games in "COS Players." I must admit that I agree with Harrod, that I like my Asian art to look more Asian than anonymously international, that I prefer Chinese and Japanese period films to contemporary dramas, and that I am more likely to visit a Zen temple than a Hello Kitty boutique. This is unhip and perhaps even politically incorrect and yet I think Harrod and I have more than a few co-conspirators in this reactionary attitude. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we in the West, despite our marginalization of Asia on the one hand and our mistreatment of Asians on the other, still feel, hope, believe that we have much to learn from Asia and Asian artists and we want them, therefore, to keep looking and acting like Asians rather than something like us. But whatever Harrod and I think, Chinese contemporary artists will do what they want to do and not what the West wants to see.

(For those planning to catch the exhibition in Liverpool, it closed 10 June, but the artists and some of their work are no doubt available, untraditionally, online.)

Leigh Clark
Monroe High School

This is interesting and quite a reality that some have foreseen coming . This might be a backlash directed at the Bush Administration, but I think that is too simplistic. The other nations see America having so much material wealth and living way beyond our means that it may border on the absurd. Also, with so much wealth, how we do not invest in the things to make us competitive-education, helping the poor, our infrastructure, health care, etc. And other nations are witnessing our fascination and voyeurism with all things superficial and, simply stated, we are not practicing what we preach when we try to impart values. Also, other nations see our imperialistic tendencies and our rationale of spreading Democracy in ways that are less then Democratic, and we see the backlash. The opposite of that is always more control of the masses, which is why the article cites sympathy for totalitarian ideas. Democracy works only when we see examples of Democracy working.

Our culture may be a turn-off for some, but I think our role in the world as a leader globally has been cast into question by our actions. If we remain oblivious to this trend and way of thinking, it could damage our status politically, and our place on the world stage could be in jeopardy. Don't think it can't happen.

I would like to see China look into using wind power for provide energy for there greater energy needs. I would also like to see the ocean waves used for generating energy. Wouldn't it be great if China decided to take the moral high road for the good of its people and planet?[Edit by="skiwasz on Jul 3, 1:22:49 PM"][/Edit]

Yes, it seems like we are in bed economically with China. We depend on them for cheap goods and they depend on us to purchase them. The world economy is what dictates the politics of our time. Will we ever outgrow the market mentality? I hope to live to see that day.

I read an article in May 2007 issue of Faces magazine (for kids) about the problems the modernization of China is posing for the preservation of the Great Wall. It discusses how much of the Great Wall is in ruins and the many reasons why. Tourism is to blame for much of the deterioration, along with vandalism and erosion. Other causes of the deterioration are nearby building projects, sections of the wall being removed to build highways, and the trend of throwing wild parties on or next to the wall.

Recent laws have been passed to help preserve the Great Wall by making grafitti, carving, removing parts, throwing parties on, and driving on the Great Wall all illegal. The International Friends of the Great Wall (IFGW) is a society dedicated to preserving the Great Wall and has employed farmers and rangers part-time to patroll the wall and the paths leading to it.

Modern technology is also being used to preserve the wall. Planes, sensing devices, and satellites are being used to check the condition of the wall.

I think this article would be very interesting for my elementary aged students to read and discuss. The idea of using modern technology and new laws to protect an ancient structure is great topic.

There has been a lot of media attention to Chinese problems lately. We had the food scare not too long ago, the toy scandal, and recently the implication that the safety inspections on aircraft (china airlines disaster) is not up to international standards. we are forced to wonder if their fast growth is a factor, media sensationalism, or a clever ploy to discredit products from a growing competitor.

Knowing world history unfortunately points out that both of those hypotheses coexist. It is tought when you are competing. You exploit what you have, at the expense of those in the way (the enclosure movement in England is alive and well in much of the developing world, fostered by the WTO and US efforts to protect its own agri-businesses). You also exploit the issues facing your competitors (The Japanese people told its people that the only product America still makes well is movies, as far back as the 80s). Now, it's China's turn.

The danger is the ignorance of the average person in say, the US, but it can be in any part of the world where corporate mass-media spews its information/disinformation, full of half-verified incongruities, stereotypes, and fear (it entertains (brings the viewers back), after all, no?). What kind of public opinion is it forming? Can people see efforts to remediate it? Do people want to go beyond their first impression?

China is a "big player" and has a growing media force of its own. I think it can dish out what it gets. As long as we keep it friendly?

Our job in the classroom is to get kids to want to look deeper, about Asia, or any other people. Good luck to us all.

Given the semi-isolationist internal political/economic approaches of the EU and the ineptitude, incompetence and ignorance of US foreign and domestic political and economic policies, it is not to be a surprise that China seeks to squeeze in between the two Western centers of international leadership (alas!) and try to replace them. Unfortunately China's approaches are not any better that the US'. China has been showing to be as irresponsible as the US in its economic/industrial development neglectful of nature's rights and human rights internally and as aggressive and insensitive to loal needs when involved in foreign lands. However, an emerging approach to socio-economic development seems to be coming forth from South America Venezuela appears to be the new visionary in its approach to general economic, social and political dynamics. This approach appears to hold that the people is the owner of all natural resources and as such all benefits derived therefrom belong to the people and not to individual or corporate ownership. Mr. Chavez, Venezuela's President, has been quite vociferous about the rights of the people. He has been implementing a new system whereby natural resources are used for the purpose of benefiting the people. There are, of course, a number of problems which are defolving from this approach, the least of which may not be his desire to continue to retain a hold on power for as long as possible. We shall have to see how his approach develoves. As for China, I believe it has sacrificed and continues to sacrifice its people for the greater, and blind, glory of the country in its economic growth and political, domestic and international, power.

"Non-debatable, resigned, and trusting" do not appear to me to be complementary terms. Non-debatable indicates individual importance vis-a'-vis the police powers of the state. Resigned indicates acceptance and helplesness in front of an overwhelmingly powerful STATE. Trusting may be a most inappropriate term to describe what the Chinese people's thoughts are what respect to their governmental representatives. Are these terms used to describe the Chinese people any different from the ones we could be describing our own people as to what we think anout our own government? We do have, perhaps, a bit more leaway. But I truly am not so sure. When our government makes decisions to engage in certain conduct totally unwarranted by evidence or backed only by manafactured evidence, I doubt very much that our government, acting under the appearance of democracy, is any different or better than what you refer to as a "totalitarian" government when we we talk about China. At least, one could argue, the Chinese government is making decision relative to a specifically identified issue threatening the people's health and safety.

It's always easier to look at other countries' negatives than our own. Do you remember when on several occasion during 2005, 2006 several accidents where people were trapped and died in the coal mines of West Virginia and Kentuky? The conditions of coal miners in these some of the poorest and most wretched States of the United States are abominable and deplorable... You see trucks overloaded with coal driven through the streets of these States with coal dust floating in the air dense no different than the black air of Pittsburgh in the 1950s-60s-70s !! And we are a DEMOCRACY where we CARE for our PEOPLE !!! We too have become blind to our duties as citizens, we have become too content, too complacent with our lives to the point of hardly ever questioning our government's duties to its citizenry. The creation of a private, mercenary military force has allowed our government to enter into military conflicts wihtout any controls by our congress, unaffected by a dormant people who does not have to send its offspring off to war, unless by choice !!!

Would you be surprised that the United States of America and China are the ONLY TWO COUNTRIES in the world which have REFUSED to sign the TOKIO Accord ? And the the European Union is considering to boycott the next meeting sponsored by the U.S. in the U.S. to counterbalance the recent global environmental accords presented in Manila (or such other place) ?? We should mobilize and rebel against the US' persisten conscious refusal to commit to a global program designed to reduce global pollution. But, this could understandable in view of the fact that American corporations are only interested in their executives' greed for more profit regardless of the cost to the local and global population.

In the Jan 7th, 2008, Newsweek Magazine there is an article called "The People Who Will Change China". Among a few business men are men and women who seem to be standing up to the government. There is a woman who lost her son in Tianamen and a man who spent 2 years in jail for standing up for housing grievances. This is both inspiring as well as frightening. Even in the face of immense obstacles and possible 'reeducation' people are still willing to fight.

I just can't imagine how hard it would be for Chinese worker families not to be able to celebrate the much awaited Chinese New Year geographically apart due to the worsening snow storm. I have read today's Los Angeles Times story on the latest development about the worst weather in half a century. Millions are stranded. About 50 people have died as an offshoot of the bad weather. What is satisfying though, even for the Chinese themselves is Premier Wen Jiabao visit to a train station in Central Hunan province where he apologized to the stranded farmers for getting stuck in their place of work due to the snow storm. Nothing can be more gratifying to a suffering citizen to see his leader visible in times of trouble assuring the citizenry of government support. I just wish and pray that the worst weather improves earlier than expected so that those workers can get home to their families and celebrate New Year.

I feel bad for all the travelers too. It makes my Thanksgiving trek home look like nothing. I heard the weather is going to get worse before it gets better. I hope that isnt the case.

I read with interest about the visit of a Chinese delegation who gave a symposium at USCI. The message was contained in the Talking Points. Specifically, Mr. Li, who spoke and entertained questions talked about the ongoing developments in China, including the effects of the worsening snowstorm on China's economy and on the people, especially the traveling workers and their family. Li also discussed about the prospects of China's becoming a "moderately" prosperous nation by 2020 and how the ongoing economic development in China might affect its relationship with America on the one hand, and America with its Asian allies, on the other. To subscribe to this very informative and educational forum, you can
check http://china.usc.edu/subscribe.aspx.

The Wang Jian Shuo blog offers two clever tours (2003-4) of Starbucks.
Starbucks in Shanghai:
http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20031122_starbucks_in_a_day.htm

And in Beijing:
http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20040805_starbucks_in_a_day_beijing_version.htm

I would love to see some teacher or student write about a tour of Chinese restaurants in a particular US destination....

Noel mentioned the visit of Li Zhongjie. Here's a link to a story with photos. About 20 of us meet with Li.

http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=930

I read the article and saw the picture. It's interesting how China has evolved to what it's now. What I appreciate is PROC gov't's addressing of the problem of corruption and the way it's moving towards a more egalitarian way of treating its citizenry. I can't blame others for making the observation that China seems to be veering towards democracy. On the development of China as a superpower, I think it can be an economic tiger sooner than expected or predicted. If the government continues to listen and redress the grievances of the citizenry, as it seems to be doing now, such development will be felt and enjoyed by the people as early as before the end of this decade. I certainly wished I didn't miss Li's lecture.

Donald Tang,Vice Chairman of Bears Stearns shared some interesting insights on finance and development. He described the US as a playground for investment due to its transparency and opportunities. However, American ingeninuity will be needed to address the sub-prime crisis and sovereign wealth funds. He seems optimistic that the financial industry can create new rules for these challenges without government interference. But didn't the reforms in the hedge funds, the S&L, and the Enron scandal take some prodding and imagination from the SEC and Washington D.C.? And are not strong institutions necessary for economic developement? What is unfortunate is that good credit risks now cannot obtain loans for growth and developement,particularly small and medium enterprises---hence the players are limited to certain play areas.
The triangular model of control, flexibility and gradualism is the approach the Chinese Central Bank or Committee is now following, according to Tang. Again, he is quite a promoter of China and its development. The parodox of development reflects a diabolical edge-- when you gain total control of the market or if you are the market there is no upswing in profits. In other words, the game ceases.
Scale was also addressed as it was in a previous conference I attended. We are speaking of a scale of exteme proportions . Where will all the talent come from? Maybe , it will come from the US where young talent will migrate to China as the new playgound. It all makes you wonder , What is happiness and its quotient, and can it be found in free markets?[Edit by="jcsmyth on Mar 6, 9:26:33 PM"][/Edit]

I didnt go to the talk with Donald Tang, but any thoughts on what he might think now that Bear Stearns needed to be financially supported by the Fed and Chase? It was the first large investment firm in the nation that needed support since the great depression. Without it, Bear Stearns would have gone bankrupt. It lost a majority of its value in one day on the market.

We've all been watching the news about the devastation in China. I hope anyone who has family in that area has received news and they are safe. Along with the disaster in Burma, it seems that East and SouthEast Asia is having a bad season.

Since our seminar began, my wife is constently pointing out East Asia issues in the news. What I found particularly interesting during the last natural disaster in East Asia, 7.5 earthquake, was the lack of communcation our community has with regions that control so much of our financial assets. What I mean is that all the visuals from China's affected area was coming from the local Korean channel as opposed to affiliates working with U.S local channels.I find this strange since China appears to be a world player and holds many of the U.S money. I would think we would have a closer connection with this part of the world. Does anybody have comments or more info on this issue?

Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, May 21, 2008
"Quake threatens a culture's future"
One of the many ethnic minorities living in China are the Qiang people, numbering about 300,000. But with last week's earthquake, the survival rate of the Qiang is in question as almost all lived within 100 miles of the earthquake's epicenter. Times staff writers interviewed an elderly couple who had walked about 12 hours from their devastated village, traveling for the first time outside of their village. They had known no life other than their remote village, so were at a loss as to what to do next. Some of the Qiang villages are so remote that aid workers had not reached them yet, even after one week. Aside from reducing the population of the group, the earthquake may well destroy their culture. Only about one-third of the Qiang speak the languge, which is part of the Tibeto-Burman group, and linguists worry that many of those who speak it may have perished. Among the young Qiang, few speak it, choosing Mandarin Chinese instead. As the survivors move to the cities, the chances of preserving their culture becomes even more difficult.

This smog is a Global problem that needs to have a response from our world leader and world powers. The United States and China are two of the biggest contributors to the problem and need to be the ones to take a stand. The United States has been dragging its feet on this issue for a long time, but we as voters need to help force the issue. I think it will be quite some time before China has an opportunity to take action. They are still growing so fast that it is difficult for them to put resources toward develpment and better control of the smog. Plus they have a government the is less inclined to act on the behave of its people because they simply have higher priorities right now. This is where a Democratic government needs to show its worth. To show the world that the government if working at the will of the people and for their good.

This is so different from previous disasters!

So much of China has opened up to journalists this year because of the Olympics. NPR reporters were in Chungdu in April and returned in May -- in time for first hand reporting on the earthquake. Would it have gotten such exposure if not for the Olympics?

How far have the Chinese moved from the secrecy and tight control viewed with the hurricane disaster that continues to unfold in Myanmar?[Edit by="jchristensen on May 27, 10:31:13 PM"][/Edit]

May 12, 2008
Sichuan, China

So many famlies lost a child, an only child, the child that parents and grandparents alike had focused all their attention on. What is to become of the broken hearts and deams of those adults? Will the mothers have another child? Will the family have the resources to give to the second child what they had already given to the first who is now dead? If the child is a daughter not a son, how they react?

But, what about the orphans, those children who survived? Will Chinese families adopt them? Will extended-family members reach out to their kin? Will these orphans languish in orphanages or struggle on the streets of Chinese cities?

Will these Chinese children suffer the same fate as the children in Russia and Bulgaria -- no one of their own culture to adopt them? Americans do step in to "rescue." I have several friends who have adopted baby girls from China and Viet Nam over the past decade. I have an older cousin who adopted two brothers who had lived on the streets of Guatamala's capital city after the earthquake in 1976.

In one of our lectures we learned that Japanese families would adopt a male from another family if they did not have a suitable [bloodline] heir. After an earthquake, do the Japanese of today adopt the orphans? Is that a totally different scenario?

Being a participant of the USCI East Asia Seminar has made me think and question in a different way.

My brother is a nutritionist and he received the attached pdf from one of his nutritionist pals. I don't know who the photographer is, but the shots are sharper than the ones I took of these same Beijing street vendors on numerous visits since 2004. The photographer has also labelled most of the items available for sale.

These street stalls are located on a street that intersects Wangfujing near the end of the pedestrian street. It's a major destination for Chinese and foreign tourists.